The week of Christmas '08

We celebrated Christmas dinner at Uncle Lynn, and Lorraine's home.

Grandmom went along with her two dogs~ Lorraine's daughter and her dad, and Lynn's friend Larry.
We all feasted. Taka and Zen were great making sushi...otherwise chicken, salad and potatoes were on the menu.

Uncle Lynn and Zen

The christmas tree was gorgeous at Lynn's. But I didn't want to buy a cut down tree, so we borrowed a potted tree from Grandmom's and celebrated christmas with this- our tree below.

My 47th birthday was the 23rd- adding extra fun to the week!

12/21/08

It's our one year wedding anniversary.
After being together 11 years we married one year ago.
I thought we'd go to a HOT SPRINGS somewhere, but ended up "just" in town, in Santa Cruz California, at his hot tub spa
which was SO nice finally~~
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open the shoji and this is what we got to see, and feel- what with all the cold air coming in. Perfect!

Well, almost perfect...
EXCEPT that Taka was sick!!!
He doesn't look THAT sick though does he?
Glad we weren't out in some boonies in the cold trying to enjoy a hot tub with him sick like this. (Like a stomach flu).


So, a hot bath and going home to bed was just right and about perfect for this year!!

Here's to MOCHI and the NEW YEAR!!!

Hey here's a photo of me and Japanese Mochi at a California Natural Foods Store.
The only mochi I could find in town~and I AM happy!!

These mochi were really-interesting! you can see the flavors?!
(If you click on the photos you can get close ups)
"Cashew Date"- SWEET!!　Also "Raisin- Cinnamon" mochi, and "CHOCOLATE BROWNIE"!!!
Then, the SAVORY mochi:
"Sesame Garlic" (ごまとににく！！）"SEEDY" (種なの）and simply PLAIN! Wow huh?!

For my american friends~ Japanese only have white mochi (plain) and a green mochi made with YOMUGI- which is called MUGWORT in the U.S. Not a strong flavor at all.

Okay- some bally news!!

Here's my Man, Taka. Getting a quick bite to eat before taking off to see the rest of the tournament Zen's team has been in this weekend (three nights).

The coach gave some game pointer reminders this afternoon before the last game to decide whether they got third or fourth place in this tournament. (click on the photo and you can see it up close)

Rain is in the forecast, so the sunlight outside the Civic Center was in a beautiful way, making the cheerleaders look better too!



THIS WAS THE NEWSpaper IN THE SANTA CRUZ SENTINAL THIS MORNING (Zen's team is the Santa Cruz Cardinals):

Dads Club: Untimely timeout costs Santa Cruz in semifinal loss to Harbor

Ryan Moses - Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted: 12/13/2008 01:37:16 AM PST


SANTA CRUZ -- For a split second Friday night, as the apparent go-ahead 3-pointer swished through the hoop, it looked like the Santa Cruz High boys basketball team had pulled off another stunner in the historic Dads Club Tournament.

But time -- rather, a timeout -- wasn't on the Cardinals' side.

Santa Cruz's celebration was cut short by the referee's whistle, as he signaled Santa Cruz coach Charles Burks had called a timeout just before junior forward Taylor Kientzel released the could-have-been game-winner in a 60-59 loss to crosstown rival Harbor.

Instead, the Pirates fans at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium roared in relief as their team held on for an exciting 60-59 victory in the semifinals of the 53rd year of the Emmett Thompson Memorial Dads Club.

"I did the same thing two year ago," Burks said of the untimely timeout. "That was too much coaching at that point. As one of my players said in there, I need to trust them. That was my loss, not theirs. They played their butts off."

Harbor [5-1] advances to face Salinas at 6 p.m. today in the tournament final, and tournament host Santa Cruz [3-3] will play in the third-place game against Soquel at 4 p.m. Scotts Valley will take on Aptos in the consolation final at 2:30 p.m.

For the second night in a row, Harbor held a 14-point lead heading into the fourth quarter but had to fight down the stretch to preserve the win.


AND finally tonight Santa Cruz High, with Zen playing so much, made a nice win over Soquel High School to place third (out of eight teams) and left the tourney feeling better.

Rasta Trees

This is my main "highlight" for these days, this pretty RASTA tree! (yellow red and green!) I drive past everyday on my street.

Oh, and Zen at basketball (true, and Taka at home).

The Squash Family

I have to talk about SQUASH!!! And since there is so much of it around even after Halloween, I have had a chance to take some photos of WINTER SQUASH.
GOURDS are a Squash. Japanese don't know there's a Squash FAMILY, and they usually call these KABOCHA photographed below: "pumpkins".
But here, a SIGN- in a California supermarket, Americans DO call Kabocha "KABOCHA". (Japanese think it's a Japanese word, which it could very well be).
And orange pumpkins are called PUMPKINS. They are not tasty at all. CANNED pumpkins are what make the best pumpkin pies. KABOCHA pies are heavy, really too heavy if you ask me.

Kabocha is just wonderful for dinners, or tempura, sautes, etc.
And other sorts of SQUASH.
Butternut Squash.
Acorn Squash (you know, acorn= どんぐり,  kind of shaped like the acorn nut)
And a Japanese decorated PUMPKIN!!! I saw this at a temple in Ishiki, Japan. My son Zen says he thinks it's a Buddhist chant burned? onto the pumpkin. Nice, huh?!

So that's the Autumn Squash Lesson for the week!

"Last Meal"... well for 2008

We had our last-of-the year meeting at my school with all of my staff. We took this great group photo (thank you Kahori!!) for our school's web site Prahbu is making, due in the Universe by the New Year!


So, below is one of my favorite restaurants were I could visit before I leave Japan tomorrow.
HATOYA.
A natural foods, "slow cooking" Japanese buffet.




The architecture is fantastic too. I noticed the drian, it's made from bamboo~

And check out how rainwater drains down, with another skinny piece of bamboo...

...down into this nice stone...water catcher!

And joining me for lunch, Elena and Tomi Tanaka- my good Romanian-Japanese tennis playing friends. Good friends, and good tennis players!

Moving To Tokyo

We passed Mt. Fuji on the way to moving Naomi to Tokyo.


Sheon (on the right) with her friend Mari- who let us use her CUTE van to move Naomi~




It was a TIGHT squeeze to get Naomi's things into what turned out to be a not-so-big van!


Naomi's "quaint" one room apartment for 67000yen per month. (About $670.00)


Driving back- another sweet view of Fuji-san...oh...and

from this angle~ our caffeine fix!! Thank goodness for better-than-canned-coffee in Japan!

And then, some collected photos of our cat Sylvester- for Taka and Zen, your kitty is well!!!
He makes himself comfy all over the place

Nearing Halloween in Japan

A halloween party at a Beauty Salon in Nishio~













Smoking outside is catching on, thank goodness!
Click on the photo- the pretty
blond-man. Japanese men
can make good looking women!














The cheerleader had never been a cheerleader- so really costumed! The ball player- I don't know if she ever really played, likely not. So nice pair!




A new game. Put nylons onto four? people's heads, the nylons are tied in the middle and you try to pull the nylons off the others. The one remaining with nylon on their head is the winner. Must say, that's rather creative! And honestly entertaining! (A little girl beat the two men and the other girl)
My costume was using my kid's Jr. High School uniform and bag. No skirt thank you- tho High School girl's skirts make good costumes being ridiculously tiny!


Back at home, Naomi cooks up
a storm in our tiny kitchen.

And Sheon decorates our school-
webbing up the place.

Also Sheon and Ischin...
Ischin supervising Sheon's
preparing to paint our small
second classroom. It used
to be Zen's bedroom.
bedroom